Your tax dollars at work,for Israel.

[Doc Mercer]

Interesting how there was a big oil find recently in Gaza ...

hmmmm ... things that make ya wonder


Cheney seeing this slaughter in Gaza must be smiling from ear to ear as that
evil bastard is nothing short of Himmler

[ironmike67]

NONE OF MY TAX DOLLARS FOR ISRAEL

[ironmike67]

Originally Posted by Doc Mercer

Interesting how there was a big oil find recently in Gaza ...

hmmmm ... things that make ya wonder


Cheney seeing this slaughter in Gaza must be smiling from ear to ear as that
evil bastard is nothing short of Himmler

NONE OF MY TAX DOLLARS FOR ISRAEL

[scrimmage]

Originally Posted by Doc Mercer

Interesting how there was a big oil find recently in Gaza ...

hmmmm ... things that make ya wonder

Cheney seeing this slaughter in Gaza must be smiling from ear to ear as that
evil bastard is nothing short of Himmler

Originally Posted by ironmike67

NONE OF MY TAX DOLLARS FOR ISRAEL

Originally Posted by ironmike67

NONE OF MY TAX DOLLARS FOR ISRAEL

ironmike said it twice.
Hamas in Gaza was democratically elected,with observers from the UN,including ex US president Jimmy Carter monitoring the proceedings,yet the resuls weren't recognized by the US and Israel,unlike the recent Iranian election,which was deemed illegitimate.
Will the US criticize Israel for their war crimes in Gaza,as documented by Amnesty International?You know the answer...

Amnesty Details Gaza "War Crimes"

July 2nd, 2009

Via:Guardian:
From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8128210.stm

Israel committed war crimes and carried out reckless attacks and acts of wanton destruction in its Gaza offensive, an independent human rights report says.
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed using high-precision weapons, while others were shot at close range, the group Amnesty International says.
Its report also calls rocket attacks by Palestinian militants war crimes and accuses Hamas of endangering civilians.

The Israeli military says its conduct was in line with international law.
Israel has attributed some civilian deaths to “professional mistakes”, but has dismissed wider criticism that its attacks were indiscriminate and disproportionate.
Amnesty says some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the 22-day Israeli offensive between 27 December 2008 and 17 January 2009, which agrees broadly with Palestinian figures.
More than 900 of these were civilians, including 300 children and 115 women, it says.
In March, Israel’s military said the overall Palestinian death toll was 1,166, of whom 295 were “uninvolved” civilians.

Israel attributed civilian casualties to collateral damage in legitimate action

Pattern
The 117-page report by Amnesty International says many of the hundreds of civilian deaths in the conflict “cannot simply be dismissed as ‘collateral damage’ incidental to otherwise lawful attacks – or as mistakes”.

It says “disturbing questions” remain unanswered as to why children playing on roofs and medical staff attending the wounded were killed by “highly accurate missiles” whose operators had detailed views of their targets.
Lives were lost because Israeli forces “frequently obstructed access to medical care,” the report says. It also reiterates previous condemnations of the use of “imprecise” weapons such as white phosphorous and artillery shells.
The destruction of homes, businesses and public buildings was in many cases “wanton and deliberate” and “could not be justified on the grounds of military necessity”, the report adds.

“All of those things occurred on a scale that constitutes pattern – and constitutes war crimes,” Donatella Rovera, who headed the research, told the BBC.

The document also gives details of several cases where it says people – including women and children posing no threat to troops – were shot at close range as they were fleeing their homes in search of shelter.
Israeli officials responded saying the military targeted only areas where Palestinian militants were operating, and accused Hamas of turning civilian neighbourhoods into “war zones”.
“We tried to be as surgical as is humanly possible in a difficult combat situation,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC.
Human shields
The Amnesty report says no evidence was found that Palestinian militants had forced civilians to stay in buildings being used for military purposes, contradicting Israeli claims that Hamas repeatedly used “human shields”.

However, Amnesty says Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups had endangered Palestinian civilians by firing rockets from residential neighbourhoods and storing weapons in them.
It says local residents had in one case told researchers that Hamas fighters had fired a rocket from the yard of a government school.
The Israeli military has repeatedly blamed Hamas for causing civilian casualties, saying its fighters operated from buildings like schools, medical facilities, religious institutions, residential homes and commercial premises.

In the cases it had investigated, Amnesty said civilian deaths “could not be explained as resulting from the presence of fighters shielding among civilians, as the Israeli army generally contends”.
However, Amnesty does accuse Israel of using civilians, including children, as human shields in Gaza,forcing them to remain in houses which its troops were using as military positions, and to inspect sites suspected of being booby trapped.

It also says Palestinian militants rocket fire from the Gaza Strip was “indiscriminate and hence unlawful under international law”, although it only rarely caused civilian casualties.
Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya declined to comment on the Amnesty International criticism, but said: “We believe the leaders of the occupation state must be tried for these crimes.”
Thirteen Israelis were killed, including three civilians, during the offensive, which Israel launched with the declared aim of curtailing cross-border rocket attacks.

[scrimmage]

Israel Will Implode

By Gilad Atzmon

Israel's oppressive occupation will cause its own demise.

July 17, 2009

From:
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23085.htm

[Scott L]

Israel will be here long after you're rotting in the ground scrimmage. People like you are mentally and morally bereft.

"Occupation" is a sham. The never-ending conflict is about Arab unwillingness to accept Israel's existence as a State, not about the lack of a Palestinian State.

There will be peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate Jews.

[scrimmage]

Originally Posted by Scott L

Israel will be here long after you're rotting in the ground scrimmage. People like you are mentally and morally bereft.

"Occupation" is a sham. The never-ending conflict is about Arab unwillingness to accept Israel's existence as a State, not about the lack of a Palestinian State.

There will be peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate Jews.

The "never ending conflict' is about keeping the benefits coming,without which the apartheid "Jewish State" wouldn't function.
The Zionist's wish for complete Arab/Palestinian submission will not be fulfilled any time soon either.
It's preposterous to calculate Arab's love of their children as less than their hatred of Jews,the math's not simple like that at all.

Hillary Clinton addressed the CFR[Council on Foreign Relation in Washington DC on July 15,2009:

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23097.htm

...take Clinton’s remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She says the Obama administration “wasted no time in starting an intensive effort on day one to realize the rights of Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace and security in two states”.

President Bush said exactly the same thing in not dissimilar language, only to implement an actual policy that fully supported Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians, including it’s 23-day full-scale military assault on Gaza beginning December 27.

U.S. policy under Obama hasn’t altered that framework one iota. The House of Representatives, for example, just approved Obama’s foreign aid budget that rewards Israel for it’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and other violations of international law with an additional $2.2 billion, on top of $555 million already allocated earlier this year.

Still, we are supposed to believe that the Obama administration is doing something “to ease the living conditions of Palestinians, and create circumstances that can lead to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.” Clinton offers no evidence that the U.S. has done anything more than spout rhetoric about this, rendered meaningless by the U.S.’s actual actions.
Bush and Obama alike have paid lip service to the rights and aspirations of the Palestinians, but the actual facts about U.S. foreign policy point to an opposite conclusion from the one Clinton would have the public believe.

[scrimmage]

How Israel Lobby Took Control Of US Foreign Policy
AIPAC becomes foreign agent dominating American foreign policy while disguised as domestic lobby.
By Jeff Gates

July 19, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- LOUISIANA

- In the early 1960s, Senator William J. Fulbright fought to force the American Zionist Council to register as agents of a foreign government. The Council eluded registration by reorganizing as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has since become what Fulbright most feared: a foreign agent dominating American foreign policy while disguised as a domestic lobby.

Israelis and pro-Israelis object when they hear that charge. How, they ask, can we so few wield such influence over so many? Answer: it’s all in the math. And in the single-issue advocacy brought to bear on US policy-making by dozens of ‘domestic’ organizations that now compose the Israel lobby, with AIPAC its most visible force.

The political math was enabled by Senator John McCain whose support for all things Israeli ensured him the GOP nomination to succeed Christian-Zionist G.W. Bush. McCain’s style of campaign finance reform proved a perfect fit for the Diaspora-based fundraising on which the lobby relies. Co-sponsored by Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, this change in federal election law typifies how Israeli influence became systemic.

‘McCain-Feingold’ raised the amount (from $1,000 to $2,300) that candidates can receive from individuals in primary and general elections. A couple can now contribute a combined $9,200 to federal candidates: $4,600 in each of the primary and general elections. Primary elections, usuall low-budget, are particularly easy to sway.

Importantly for the Diaspora, this change also doubled the funds candidates can receive without regard to where those contributors reside. A candidate in Iowa, say, may have only a few pro-Israeli constituents. When campaign support is provided by a nationwide network of pro-Israelis, that candidate can more easily be persuaded to support policies sought by Tel Aviv.

Diaspora-based fundraising has long been used by the lobby with force-multiplying success to shape US foreign policy. Under the guise of reform, John McCain doubled the financial resources that the lobby can deploy to elect and retain its supporters.

Jeff Gates is A widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide. Gates’ latest book is Guilt By Association—How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008). His previous books include Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street From Wall Street and The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century. For two decades, he was an adviser to policy-makers worldwide and Counsel to the US Senate Finance Committee (1980-87)—working with Senator Russell Long of Louisiana.
Excerpt from:
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23098.htm

Recap of 2009 AIPAC Policy Conference

[Scott L]

Urine Idiot

[scrimmage]

Originally Posted by Scott L

Urine Idiot

Scott L;
Gilad Atzmon who provided the commentary in the Post #75 video entitled "Israel Will Implode" is Jewish,what do you think about his opinions?
What did you think about members of the IDF[Israeli Defense Force] shooting a cuffed and blindfolded Palestinian prisoner in the same clip?

This Palestinian was shot while bound and blindfolded, Israeli Human Rights group reports.

http://northshorewoman.blogspot.com/...1_archive.html

Another war crime?:

[MannyLovitto]

Scott I think we both know that Diggin4Scrimmage Oren is not worth the time.

He's neck deep in his hatred and that should be punishment enough for his soul

[Scott L]

The Jewhaters keep recycling the same old previously debunked BS as if I'm supposed to waste my time debunking it again. I leaarned my lesson. I make one effort per thread. After I get the anticipated boilerplate rhetorical response I spend the rest of the thread pissing on their shoes.

Israel is a benevolent, peaceloving nation surrounded by hatred. But Israel isn't going anywhere. And the idiots spewing blind hatred in multi-colored fonts on their computers made with technology from the nation of Israel, which is productive despite being in a constant state of war forced upon it -- can suffer in hate along with Israel's neighbors while they produce nothing but more wasted generations of hate.

[Scott L]

Originally Posted by MannyLovitto

Scott I think we both know that Diggin4Scrimmage Oren is not worth the time.

He's neck deep in his hatred and that should be punishment enough for his soul

Diggin = Hamas

Oren = Saudi Arabia

Scrimmage = Ahmadinejad

[scrimmage]

Originally Posted by Scott L

The Jewhaters keep recycling the same old previously debunked BS as if I'm supposed to waste my time debunking it again. I leaarned my lesson. I make one effort per thread. After I get the anticipated boilerplate rhetorical response I spend the rest of the thread pissing on their shoes.

Israel is a benevolent, peaceloving nation surrounded by hatred. But Israel isn't going anywhere. And the idiots spewing blind hatred in multi-colored fonts on their computers made with technology from the nation of Israel, which is productive despite being in a constant state of war forced upon it -- can suffer in hate along with Israel's neighbors while they produce nothing but more wasted generations of hate.

Scott L you haven't debunked anything,the "peaceloving nation" shoots blindfolded,handcuffed prisoners,the font is Israeli blue,Israel benefits greatly from its "constant state of war",otherwise why would the US grace it with so much aid,in an effort to keep it a viable American-Middle Eastern ally/entity?
Where does Israeli military technology,like F-16's,and Apache helicopters come from?
Any "hate" that's produced has a just cause behind it.

[Scott L]

Scrimmage, what's the the ratio of your stupidity to bigotry? 70/30? 60/40?

Just because you retype something 26 times doesn't make it true.

By the way, regarding the topic of this thread, it is also BULLSHIT as in many ways Israel is the giver and the US the beneficiary. I'd explain it to you but it would be a half-hour wasted, as you have demonstrated countless times you're way too stupid to grasp this truth. And no one else in this ghostown gives a fuck so why waste my time.

Oh look, a tumbleweed just blew through the forum. AND AN ISRAELI SOLDIER SHOT IT (GASP)!

[scrimmage]

Good looking propaganda:


In 2007 it emerged that the foreign ministry was behind a photo-shoot published in Maxim, a popular US men’s magazine, in which female Israeli soldiers posed in swimsuits.


Why everything media needs to be taken with a grain of salt:

Team Twitter:Israel's Internet War

BY JONATHAN COOK
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Excerpt from:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook07212009.html

The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitters and Facebook may not be all that it seems.

Israel’s foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel.
Internet-savvy Israeli youngsters, mainly recent graduates and demobilised soldiers with language skills, are being recruited to pose as ordinary surfers while they provide the government’s line on the Middle East conflict.
“To all intents and purposes the internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” said Ilan Shturman, who is responsible for the project.

The existence of an “internet warfare team” came to light when it was included in this year’s foreign ministry budget. About $150,000 has been set aside for the first stage of development, with increased funding expected next year.
The team will fall under the authority of a large department already dealing with what Israelis term “hasbara”, officially translated as “public explanation” but more usually meaning propaganda. That includes not only government public relations work but more secretive dealings the ministry has with a battery of private organisations and initiatives that promote Israel’s image in print, on TV and online.

In an interview this month with the Calcalist, an Israeli business newspaper, Mr Shturman, the deputy director of the ministry’s hasbara department, admitted his team would be working undercover.
“Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the hasbara department of the Israeli foreign ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis,” he said. “They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the foreign ministry developed.”

Rona Kuperboim, a columnist for Ynet, Israel’s most popular news website, denounced the initiative, saying it indicated that Israel had become a “thought-police state”.
She added that “good PR cannot make the reality in the occupied territories prettier. Children are being killed, homes are being bombed, and families are starved.”

[Scott L]

^^ Wish it WAS true. I'd join up!

Where were you yesterday? KKK meeting run long?

[railbird]

There will only be peace when Jews realise that Jesus is their only savior, which is soon.

[Scott L]

Yeah that'll bring peace because we all know how much the Arab Muslims love Christians and Jesus! Don't you have some lesbian tennis players to scream at?

[Romanowski]

youd have to be an idiot to think that israel isnt the US's bitch

[scrimmage]

Originally Posted by Romanowski

youd have to be an idiot to think that israel isnt the US's bitch

Well you sure convinced me...

Israel and the Nutbar Factor
Have Israel and its supporters gone over the edge?
by Justin Raimondo, July 22, 2009

"According to the survey of 800 registered voters, which was conducted June 9-11 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, those who believe Israel is committed to peace has dropped to 46 percent this month from 66 percent last December. The poll found that some 49 percent of American voters call themselves supporters of Israel, down from 69 percent last September, and only about 44 percent of voters believe the United States should support Israel – down from 71 percent a year ago."

What is the reason for this dramatic drop in support for the Jewish state? After all, the Israeli government and its American amen corner spend a lot of money – a lot of it our own tax dollars coming back to haunt us – in pursuit of the good will of the American people. They do this because they know the U.S. is Israel’s lifeline and that what is essentially a settler colony could not exist for very long if taken off U.S. life support, i.e., if the billions in aid given each year were ended or even significantly reduced. Yet, in spite of this, Israel’s approval ratings are plummeting, fast – and the reason is an exponential expansion of what I call the nutbar factor in Israeli society.

From and continued at:
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2...nutbar-factor/

[Scott L]

"Israel and the Nutbar Factor
Have Israel and its supporters gone over the edge?
by Justin Raimondo, July 22, 2009 "

That's pretty funny, a 9/11 conspiracy nutbar like Raimondo calling people who support the only sane country in the Middle East nutbars. You love swiming in shit Scrimmage. Time for you to join your pal Diggin.

[Romanowski]

Israel could fight and defeat, the lazy and stupid arabs, particularly militarily, WITHOUT US Weaponry

Russian would do.

But we couldnt have that! How can we control the Oil? Israel is our bargaining card.

You can throw out whatever you want, the fact remains

Israel buys US weapons, and aids in its development too, for a much higher cost then it needs for its survival

Israel already would own twice the land mass it is currently, and still giving back, if not for US relations

The Sinai desert comes to mind, won in war in 1967. Can you imagine Israel with oil, holy shit!

You are resonating half truths and facts that are only presented in such a way when

1. you arent in the know

2. are simply resonating anti Israeli propaganda

[scrimmage]

Israel would have a much harder time without all the US aid it has received since 1949,the US gives Israel grants with which it turns around and buys arms from the US with.

How many Israeli troops are in Iraq,and what influence do they have in keeping Saudi Arabia allied with the US?
Israel with a population not growing as fast as the Arabs has trouble controlling the territory it has now;what happened when they went into Lebanon in 2006,Israel was taking too many casualties fighting Hezbollah and they had to retreat.

The Sinai desert doesn't have much oil,and wasn't worth occupying for Israel,they got a better deal returning it to Egypt.
Aren't "half truths",half right?,and if "facts" are presented they must be known,what's anti-Israeli about that?

Whitewashing Israeli History

Posted on Jul 22, 2009

http://www.truthdig.com/eartothegrou...li_history/?ln

Because if it’s not in the history books, it didn’t happen. Today’s Orwell Award goes to the Israeli government, whose education minister has decided to remove references to what Palestinians call the “catastrophe”—when Israel defeated five Arab nations in a 1948 war and expelled 700,000 Palestinians—from textbooks given to Arab schoolchildren.

If you read the Associated Press copy carefully, you will see that the first and second paragraphs say two very different things. The lead paragraph claims the “catastrophe” is a reference to the creation of the state of Israel. The second claims catastrophe refers to the Palestinian “defeat and exile in the war over Israel’s 1948 creation.” Al-naqba actually refers to the exile of 700,000 Palestinians and the loss of 80 percent of the Palestinian homeland to an invading force—not a petty condemnation of Israel’s creation.

The Associated Press:
The Israeli government will remove references to what Palestinians call the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation from textbooks for Arab schoolchildren, the education minister said Wednesday.
The reference to “al-naqba,” the Arabic word catastrophe, as Palestinians call their defeat and exile in the war over Israel’s 1948 creation, was inserted by a dovish Israeli education minister in 2007.
The phrase remains contentious six decades later, a symptom of the continuing divisions in Israel. Many Israeli Arabs identify politically with their Palestinian counterparts in the West Bank and Gaza. As a result, some Israeli Jews accuse Israeli Arabs of disloyalty to the country.
Read more:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...wuKFQD99JIUQ02

[Romanowski]

is scrimmage oren?

[scrimmage]

Originally Posted by Romanowski

You are resonating half truths and facts that are only presented in such a way when

1. you arent in the know

2. are simply resonating anti Israeli propaganda

Originally Posted by Romanowski

is scrimmage oren?

Who's Oren? Not me.

Here's some more,-like in Post #86-Israeli propaganda,to "resonate" to:

Below excerpt from:
http://www.jewishpost.com/news/Redef...nine-side.html
Redefining the Israeli Defense Force’s Feminine side

By Julie A. Sergel


The July[2007] issue of Maxim magazine offered a “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces” photo spread, which some termed a “pornographic campaign.” Turns out, the strategy was in fact, a government sponsored push to evoke a sexier depiction of Israel to American males in New York.

The photos of Israeli models—former IDF soldiers—in swimsuits along the beaches of Tel Aviv, was said to be an act of “Zionism,” according to one 25 year old former Air Force sergeant who participated in the Maxim photo shoot. David Saranga, Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Israeli Consulate General in New York, explained that they were just seeking good demographics. “Israel’s image among New York men aged 18-38 is lacking.” Saranga figured the spread in the popular men’s magazine would offer “an image they’d find appealing.”

[InsideJob]

go to anti-war.com and listen to ryan dawson explain the israeli lie, all connected back to 9/11

[Scott L]

Fuck you ya stupid cun+

[scrimmage]

Obama's America Is Not
Delivering The Goods

By Gideon Levy
Haaretz Correspondent
From:
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23264.htm

August 14,m 2009 "Haaretz" --- With great sorrow and deep consternation, we hereby declare the death of the latest hope. Perhaps rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase the famous quote by Mark Twain, but the fears are being validated day after day. Barack Obama's America is not delivering the goods. Sharing a glass of beer with a racist cop and a pat on the back of Hugo Chavez are not what we hoped for; wholesale negotiations on freezing settlement construction are also not what we expected. Just over six months after the most promising president of all began his term, perhaps hope has a last breath left, but it is on its deathbed.

He came into office amid much hoopla. The Cairo speech ignited half the globe. Making settlements the top priority gave rise to the hope that, finally, a statesman is sitting in the White House who understands that the root of all evil is the occupation, and that the root of the occupation's evil is the settlements. From Cairo, it seemed possible to take off. The sky was the limit.

Then the administration fell into the trap set by Israel and is showing no signs of recovery.

A settlement freeze, something that should have been understood by a prime minister who speaks with such bluster about two states - a peripheral matter that Israel committed to in the road map - has suddenly turned into a central issue. Special envoy George Mitchell is wasting his time and prestige with petty haggling. A half-year freeze or a full year? What about the 2,500 apartment units already under construction? And what about natural growth? And kindergartens?

Perhaps they will reach a compromise and agree on nine months, not including natural growth though allowing completion of apartments already under construction. A grand accomplishment.

Jerusalem has imposed its will on Washington. Once again we are at the starting point - dealing with trifles from which it is impossible to make the big leap over the great divide.

We expected more from Obama. Menachem Begin promised less, and he made peace within the same amount of time after he took office. When the main issue is dismantling the settlements, the pulsating momentum that came with Obama is petering out. Instead, we are paddling in shallow water. Mitchell Schmitchel. What's in it for peace? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will once again meet him in London at the end of the month[August 2009]. A "magic formula" for a settlement freeze may be found there, but the momentum is gone.

Not in Israel, though. Here people quickly sensed that there is nothing to fear from Obama, and the fetters were taken off. Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quick to declare that there is no Palestinian partner, even after the Fatah conference elected the most moderate leadership that has ever been assembled in Palestine. Afterward, in a blatant act of provocation, he brought a Torah scroll into the heart of the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, in full view of television cameras, just so America can see who's boss around here.

Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, another two politicians who smell American weakness, were quick to declare during a visit to Ma'aleh Adumim that Israel will not freeze any construction. To hell with Obama. The settlers continue to move into more homes in East Jerusalem, Netanyahu is silent and Israelis sense that the "danger" has passed. Israel is once again permitted to do as it pleases. The landlord has once again gone insane. Except that the landlord has gone insane because the real landlord is showing signs of weakness, signs of folding, signs of losing interest in events in the region that most endangers world peace.

Nothing remains from the speeches in Cairo and Bar-Ilan University. Obama is silent, and Yishai speaks. Even "Israel's friends" in Washington, friends of the occupation, are once again rearing their heads.

One source familiar with Obama's inner circle likened him this week to a man who inflates a number of balloons every day in the hope that one of them will rise. He will reach his goal. The source compared him to Shimon Peres, an analogy that should insult Obama. The trial balloons the U.S. president sends our way have yet to take off. One can, of course, wait for the next balloon, the Obama peace plan, but time is running out. And Israel is not sitting idly by.

The minute Jerusalem detected a lack of American determination, it returned to its evil ways and excuses. "There is no partner," "Abu Mazen is weak," "Hamas is strong." And there are demands to recognize a Jewish state and for the right to fly over Saudi Arabia - anything in order to do nothing.

An America that will not pressure Israel is an America that will not bring peace. True, one cannot expect the U.S. president to want to make peace more than the Palestinians and Israelis, but he is the world's responsible adult, its great hope. Those of us who are here, Mr. President, are sinking in the wretched mud, in "injury time."